Inter's €35m Bid for Curtis Jones Poses Dilemma for Liverpool
Inter have come back for Curtis Jones, this time with money that asks serious questions of Liverpool’s resolve.
The Italian champions, rebuffed in June with a €25m offer, have indicated through intermediaries that they are ready to go to €35m (£30m) for the midfielder. Liverpool, for now, still point to a valuation closer to €40m – but the clock is ticking, and Jones has only a year left on his deal at Anfield.
This is no casual enquiry. Inter’s representatives made fresh contact with Liverpool this week and set out their willingness to push higher, sensing an opportunity around a player whose situation feels increasingly fragile. Officially, Liverpool want to keep a homegrown talent who came through their academy and grew up with the club. Unofficially, the prospect of losing him for nothing next summer hangs over every conversation.
Jones’s frustration has been visible. He never fully nailed down a starting place last season and often cut a subdued, irritated figure under Arne Slot. The tension surfaced again on Wednesday night in New York after a pre-season win over Wrexham, when he became embroiled in a row with Dominik Szoboszlai, apparently over not being given the captain’s armband once the Hungarian was substituted in the second half.
It was a minor flashpoint in a friendly, but it told a bigger story: Jones wants status, minutes, responsibility. Inter are offering exactly that, along with a central role in a side that has just won Serie A.
Liverpool’s new head coach, Andoni Iraola, has publicly stressed how important it is to keep Jones and preserve a local core at the start of his tenure. He knows what it means in this city to see one of their own in red, driving the team from midfield. Letting such a player leave, at 25, would cut against the emotional grain of the club.
Yet football economics rarely care for sentiment. A €35m bid for a squad player with a year left on his contract is the sort of proposal that tests even the most romantic notions of identity and loyalty. Inter’s determination is clear; they see value, they see upside, and they see Liverpool cornered by time.
The decision now sits with Liverpool’s hierarchy. Hold their line and risk losing a boyhood Red for nothing in 12 months, or cash in and watch him try to flourish in the black and blue of San Siro?
